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- Publisher
- Brill
- Copyright
- © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
- ISSN
- 1063-1119
- eISSN
- 1568-5306
- DOI
- 10.1163/156853011X545574
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Review Section / Society & Animals 19 (2011) 103-112 109 Living and Dying with an Ordinary Remarkable Dog Dean Koontz, A Little Big Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. New York: Hyperion, 2009. 271 pages. I should start with what journalists call “full disclosure.” I have been a fan of Dean Koontz’s fiction for decades, and his books have provided me with many hours of enjoyable recre- ational reading. In addition, my two youngest dogs are golden retrievers acquired from a rescue organization in Virginia. Consequently, I opened A Big Little Life with great antici- pation. The book is Koonz’s account of his experiences with Trixie, a golden who came to be a member of his family after she was “released” from Canine Companions for Indepen- dence following elbow surgery that would have made her unsuitable for the rigors of being an assistance dog. I closed the book having had a rather mixed reading experience. In recent years, “me and my dog” memoirs have grown into a major literary genre (see Copeland, 2009). Some of these accounts (e.g., Grogan, 2008) display a nearly criminal ignorance of the basic processes involved in developing a reasonable human-canine rela- tionship.
Journal
Society & Animals – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2011